Nineteen-year-old Ellen is thrilled to have Jack Bryant as a best friend and roommate. She would be even happier to have him as a boyfriend. Ellen doesn't just love Jack, she loves his entire family--so perfect, so wealthy, so envied by the neighbours.

Then, one terrible Saturday morning, Ellen and Jack visit his family home--and find six hanging bodies.

Little by little, Ellen learns that beneath the family's glossy façade was a seething cauldron of abuse, dysfunction, and toxicity that she couldn't have imagined. But the more Jack reveals about why he had to leave the house and its dark secrets, the more Ellen wonders: Did he narrowly escape tragedy--or does he know much more about the carnage than he's admitting?